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An individual was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his incarceration period raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the course of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a mental health expert that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the original case.